


i hope you can hear me

by preciouspeterbparker



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Based on a moodboard, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-19 00:48:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29742447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/preciouspeterbparker/pseuds/preciouspeterbparker
Summary: it was infuriating.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	i hope you can hear me

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this little ficlet based on @starker-sorbet ‘s “Milk Caramel - Love Confession” moodboard for the valentine’s chocolate box event. 
> 
> https://starker-sorbet.tumblr.com/post/643416830577377280/milk-caramellove-confession-peter-finally
> 
> “Peter finally confessing his love for Tony by his hospital bedside after a fierce battle nearly kills the older man.”
> 
> originally posted to tumblr on 2/21/21

“Mr. Stark?” Peter sniffed hard, swallowing harshly in an attempt to clear some of the mess clogging his nose. The sharp, sterile smell of the room made his nostrils burn and his head swim. Turning his head slightly, he let himself wipe his nose on the shoulder of his t-shirt. He didn't really care how gross it was. He had more important things to worry about at the moment. “Tony, can you hear me?” 

There was no response from the other man, not that Peter actually expected one. Just the steady beeping of the heart monitor. 

He cleared his throat, trying to get rid of the lump that was sitting there. “I, uh, I really- I hope you can hear me. I’ve been talking to you, all day. I-I’ve heard that it’s supposed to help, or something.” His bruised and battered hands shook as they took hold of Tony’s limp one, pulling at the cord to the blood oxygen monitor clipped to his pointer finger. 

“Mr. Stark, I- _Tony_ ,” Peter whimpered, letting his head hang down, eyes squeezed shut. Auburn curls flopped haphazardly down over his forehead. Tears started to roll down his face for the umpteenth time since the battle, since Tony’s suit had taken one bad hit too many and he’d gone down, _hard_. 

And it’s not just the fact that he had gotten hurt. 

He’d done so in an attempt to protect Peter, to be the hero.

It was infuriating. Peter was literally the strongest one there, he didn’t need Tony to take the hit for him. He had super-healing for fuck’s sake.

The young man choked on a sob. “You’re so fucking _stupid_ ,” he rasped. “Why would you- I could have handled that, Tony.” Sure, he may have broken a rib or two, maybe gotten a concussion, but he could heal from that in a day or two, a week tops. Instead, here Tony was, lying unconscious in a hospital bed. Stable, but Dr. Cho couldn’t say when he would wake up. _If_ he would wake up.

Peter was terrified. There was no way he would ever be prepared for the death of his mentor, much less if it was a result of something other than old age. He thought he’d have more time. That _they’d_ have more time, together. There were more late night binges to be had in the lab, corny jokes to be shared. Tony was supposed to see him graduate from MIT. He wanted to keep doing dumb things just to see the faux-exasperated expression on the older man’s face, the way he would fondly roll his eyes. Peter wasn’t ready for their time to be up. 

His body wracked with sobs, his breath hitching noisily as he tried to get the words out through his trembling lips. “You aren’t allowed to die like this Tony, not for me, not now. You can’t go. You can’t. You can’t go. I need- I need you here, with me.” He didn’t know how to be Spider-Man without Tony, not anymore. It had been too long- what good was he without Iron Man? What was he without the person that made him strive to be better, to create a better world for them both? One where they could- He had to-

That fucking _beeping_. 

Peter felt himself getting worked up but he had to do it. This could be his last chance. He had to say it, because what if- A pained cry pushed its way up from his lungs. “What if I- What if I never get to tell you? What if you never- What if you die without knowing h-how much you mean to me? I can’t- Tony you can’t, you’ve gotta come back. Come back to me, please, Mr. Stark. You’ve gotta know, I need you to know.” 

One of his hands released Tony’s, moving to cover his mouth as he broke down even further. “I love you,” he whimpered, trying to keep his grip light, not wanting to do any more damage to Tony’s body. “I, I love you Tony, so you’ve gotta come back okay? Gotta come back to me.”

Sitting there, in that uncomfortable plastic chair at the side of the hospital bed, Peter cried and thought of all the things, the little moments in time that he’d dreamed about that hadn’t yet come true, hadn’t even had the opportunity to. Their first kiss, the scratch of Tony’s stubble on his chin. Saying ‘I love you’ for the first time. Saying ‘I do’. Laying in bed beside each other. Cooking breakfast together. Having a family. Growing old together. 

“We’ve got so much to do, Tony,” he whispered an indeterminate amount of time later, all out of tears. His eyes were red, and they stung when he blinked. “So you listen to me, okay?” Both of his hands clutched at Tony’s larger one again as he brought it up to his lips. He pressed his mouth to the back of the older man’s hand in a kiss before moving their limbs back down to rest on the covers. “You’ve gotta wake up so I can tell you I love you and then you’re gonna say it back. And then- then we’ll get our happily ever after, okay? No more, no more of this hero business. Just us. Just us, Tony. So you’ve gotta wake up.”

*

It wasn’t until after Peter had passed out from exhaustion and been asleep for a few hours that the fingers of Tony’s right hand twitched in his grip.


End file.
